Bülow, Sebastian

Lundgren, Tobias

Abstract [en]

The purpose of this study was to estimate the recreational value of Periyar National Park in India. To be able to give an estimate of the recreational value an economic valuation technique called the travel cost method was applied. The travel cost method is a survey based method that uses the cost of travelling to a site to estimate the demand function for the site. By applying the demand function in a regression model relationships between the number of visits and the variables that effect the number of visits made could be found. This also made it possible to estimate the consumer surplus which is the value used to represent the recreational value of the national park. The data used in the study is based on a sample of 129 visitors of the national park. The result of this study was that the consumer surplus for Periyar National Park was estimated to 15 billion USD. This value seems high and one possible explanation for this is that it has been caused by some of the problems with the travel cost method. It is also important to note that the estimated value only represents one part of the total economic value, the other values of the site’s total economic value have not been estimated in this thesis.